Can the DGA Protect TV Directors’ Jobs by Preventing Actors From Taking Them?
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached a tentative agreement capping "affiliated hires" — actors, writers, and other non-directors — at two episodes directed per TV season
- Shows with fewer than eight episodes can have only one affiliated hire direct per season under the deal
- The limit exempts show creators, writer-directors, executive or co-executive producers who do no writing or acting on the show, and "producer-directors" with no other role, per the contract language
- Kevin McKidd went from playing Owen Hunt on "Grey's Anatomy" to directing 48 episodes of the show — the most of any director there — illustrating the career pipeline the new cap could constrain
- Noah Wyle directed a Season 2 episode of "The Pitt"; under the new rules, his episode would not count against the two-episode cap because he wrote two first-season episodes
- The DGA also pushed to extend its jurisdiction to U.S. shows filmed abroad — where its terms are currently applied about 85% of the time — but the AMPTP declined an expansion, agreeing only to issue a non-discrimination bulletin and convene the Geographic Scope Committee before year's end
- SAG-AFTRA, the performers' union, declined to comment on the DGA deal
Why it matters: The DGA cast the cap as a defense of director jobs as TV production contracts, but the deal also narrows a proven pipeline for actor-directors like Kevin McKidd (48 Grey's Anatomy episodes) and Noah Wyle. The DGA won on affiliated-hire limits but lost on its other major ask: the AMPTP refused to extend guild jurisdiction to overseas shoots, which currently operate under DGA terms only 85% of the time.
